


Subjugation Is Its Own  Reward

by smalltrolven



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Established Relationship, M/M, Spoilers for episode 12.07 “Rock Never Dies”, season 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:42:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11093343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smalltrolven/pseuds/smalltrolven
Summary: After surviving their confrontation with Lucifer in Los Angeles, the brothers stick around for a hunt that Dean has always wanted to look into at a historic downtown hotel.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Spoilers for episode 12.07 “Rock Never Dies”  
> Not my characters, only my words. Written for the [spn casefic bang 2017](http://spncasefic.tumblr.com). Manzana is apple in Spanish. For pictures of the BIltmore [check this article ](http://untappedcities.com/2013/10/29/10-secrets-historic-millennium-biltmore-hotel-los-angeles/?displayall=true)out. Title from the lyrics in “Bloody Messiah” - the Vince Vicente song written for the episode. Thank you muse away for the excellent and very helpful beta. Many thanks to sketchydean for the beautiful artwork.

  
  


 


	2. Chapter 2

They hadn’t been back to California in a long time. Not since that case in Hollywood—no it had been more recent than that one. When they’d gotten a free ride to the angel’s Green Room—in Van Nuys. No, it had been that one up in Northern California, Bodega Bay, the case with their friend Annie Hawkins, when they figured out that Bobby was a ghost riding with them. Good times…no wonder it had been a while.

Anyway, he didn’t want to think about the more than complicated relationship they had with California ( _mumble mumble Stanford can bite my pretty ass_ ), but here they were, back in Los Angeles again. Fresh off their case battling Lucifer, they were both badly in need of a distraction. He could tell Sam was not ready for the long haul back to the Bunker quite yet, and honestly neither was he. 

A reason to stay a little while longer was this one possible haunted hotel on his cases-to-maybe-do-at-some-point list. It had been on there for a very long time. He had started reading about it when he was in his early twenties. He and Sam had discussed it as a real case to pursue a few times over the years, but Sam had pooh-poohed it as being purely Hollywood, something created only for publicity. And since it was in California, the remaining stickiness of the location issue between them had made Dean drop it as an active hunt to pursue.

But being the popular culture maven that he was, Dean couldn’t help being intrigued by all the Hollywood connections, so he had kept researching off and on through the years. He’d eliminated some of the obvious human suspects who had been named. It definitely wasn’t just a straight up haunting, or even a multiple haunting as some occult blogs had guessed. He thought there were possibly several ghosts stuck in the hotel, but they seemed to have been harnessed somehow, because it wasn’t the normal ghost-gone-wrong behavior.

The place the alleged ghosts were stuck, the Biltmore Hotel in downtown LA, was still prosperous against all the odds. When most of the similarly enormous, stuffy old-style hotels had been knocked down or resized, the Biltmore was still going strong. From the pictures he’d seen, there was some possibility that the ornate decor had something to do with the case. A lot of the stuff had been imported from Europe, chandeliers, artwork, and so on. He’d tried chasing down the provenance of some of those items online, but had been stymied for lack of clear enough photographs to use. At the very least, he wanted to go take some pictures of his own while they were here. And if Sam never found out about his Biltmore-focused Instagram account, that would be just peachy. 

In the confused scene outside Club Meteor, Dean got to talking with Vince Vicente’s manager and she mentioned something about hauntings at a nearby hotel. She looked a lot less shaken at the idea than Dean had thought she should, and he wished Sam had been standing with him to hear it, but he was still talking to some of the witnesses. Then Dean noticed she had a friend with her, sort of hiding in her shadow. 

“Dean, this is my friend Lucho Manzana, he’s a big Lady Heart fan. He’s the one with something I think you could likely help him with,” the manager said, tugging her friend out of her shadow towards Dean. 

The man was tiny, or maybe just compact. He was very dark-complected with a red hat covering his crown of long jet-black hair. 

Dean reached out to shake the man’s hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m sorry about what happened here tonight, it’s tough when you’re a fan.”

Lucho didn’t speak, he just nodded and looked at Dean.

“So Lucho, is the manager of that probably haunted hotel I was talking about,” the manager said.

“Let me guess, the Biltmore?” Dean asked.

Lucho’s eyes widened with surprise. “Yes, that is my hotel, well it is not mine, it is the one I am in charge of.”

“From what I heard, something had changed recently, right, Lucho? The ghost activity or whatever it is has amped up and people are getting injured instead of just spooked,” the manager said.

Lucho’s face turned another shade of grim. “That is partly correct, yes.”

“Sounds like something that needs to be checked out before it gets worse and hurts more people,” Dean said. “That’s right up our alley, want us to come over tomorrow?”

Lucho brightened up at Dean’s offer. “That would a real help, Mr. Winchester.”

“It’s Dean, and we’ll be happy to do it. Probably be late morning when we get there, okay?”

“That would suit my schedule very well, you may drive up and I will meet you at the valet parking station. I will see you tomorrow, Dean,” Lucho said with a little wave. He turned and walked off into the darkness past the police spotlights.

Dean realized that he’d just volunteered them for another job right after this whole Lucifer business, but Sam would have to understand that, right?

“You give me so much shit for my serial killer hobby, I’m just supposed to give you a pass on the Hollywood true-crime stuff? No way, buddy, no way,” Sam vigorously shook his head which made Dean duck as Sam had just gotten out of the shower.

Dean finished shaving and flicked the water off his razor at Sam to retaliate. “C’mon, I just want to get some of my own pictures of the place, then we can leave, all right?”

“Fine, it’s rush hour now anyway. It’ll probably save us a few hours on the freeway if we delay getting on the road for a bit,” Sam said with a shrug as he finished toweling off.

“How about I’ll even buy you some afternoon tea, Frances?” Dean offered, just to see if he could get a smile out of Sam this morning.

Sam socked him in the bicep, hard, the little shit. But out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam smiling. 

Lucho had said to just drive up like they were guests checking in and he’d meet them at the valet parking station. The elegant tunnel entrance was plenty wide even for his baby. Dean thought she looked good in this setting, closer in time to her own heyday. The valet took the keys with a grin on his face, but Dean stared him down, threatening bodily harm without saying a thing. The man shrank back a little and gave a little nod. That was one of the bad things about big cities, entrusting the parking situation to strangers was a hard thing for him. He got over it when Lucho showed up, dwarfed by the enormous and ornate entrance doors where he stood waving to them. 

Lucho shook Dean’s hand and looked expectantly at Sam hovering behind him. “And so, Dean, who is your very very handsome friend?”

Sam blushed in that pretty way he had and extended a hand, probably confused because Dean hadn’t warned him about already having a contact at the hotel. Before Dean could figure out whether to introduce Sam as his brother—had it come up in the conversation with Vince’s manager?—Lucho shook Sam’s hand vigorously.

“Welcome to our hotel, I am the manager, Lucho Manzana.” He held Sam’s hand in his, staring up and up at him in evident amazement at his size.

Sam blushed a little brighter and shook Lucho’s hand. “I’m Sam, nice to meet you Mr. Manzana. Dean has told me _so much_ about you.”

That last bit warned Dean that he was in trouble for not preparing Sam for this whole thing.

“I’ve taken the liberty of booking you a suite while you’re here for your investigation, Dean. It’s a good time between awards season and the holidays so there was a nice one available.”

Sam looked at Dean with raised eyebrows over Lucho’s head.

“Uh, Lucho, we hadn’t discussed staying overnight or anything. So, Sam and I didn’t plan on it.”

“Well, the suite is there for you if you need it, there will be plenty of room for you both. I suppose I’m just anticipating my guest’s needs like any other good hotelier would.”

“We appreciate it very much, Mr. Manzana,” Sam said, jumping in to save the conversation. “Why don’t you show us where you think we should start?”

Dean was as shocked as Sam that they were being treated so well, it wasn’t something they were used to in their hunting lives. It might mean that Lucho hadn’t been honest about how bad it had gotten here at the hotel. Dean grabbed their duffels out of the car before the valet had a chance to drive away.

“Call me Lucho. Please come right this way,” Lucho ushered them into the spectacular lobby. The whole thing was dripping with gilt and plaster details, lit by an enormous skylight. Beautiful paintings and vibrant murals were on the walls. It was a room that vibrated with history, one you wanted to know the real story about.

Dean felt himself gawking like an idiot, finally being here after studying this place for so long. “Hey, uh, Lucho, you mind if we take some pictures?” Dean waved his cellphone at him.

“Please, go right ahead. That’s one of the things we love about the guests that come here, they want to take home pictures with them,” Lucho said to Sam.

Sam smiled as Dean darted around the lobby snapping photos of all the details. But he noticed Lucho was shifting from foot to foot, it made him wonder if he was nervous or just impatient. “What’s the thing most people take pictures of, Lucho?” Sam asked.

“Probably the fountain in the Rendezvous Court, let me show you there,” Lucho said, gesturing for Sam to follow him. Sam noticed the small man limped, favoring his right leg and wondered how he managed to run around the hotel all day for his work. He seemed to be a little fireball of energy, so maybe he was just adrenaline powered.

Sam held up a finger to Lucho, and grabbed Dean’s wrist as he passed by intent on getting more pictures. “We’re heading to something called the Rendezvous Court. Are we splitting up now or what?”

“This place is so big, let’s stick together for now. Lead the way, Lucho,” Dean said, stepping towards the manager to follow him. He switched their hands around so he was holding Sam’s, tugging him along.

Stepping into the main hallway, the brothers both stopped and tried to conceal their reaction. It was beautiful in that over-the-top way old buildings sometimes still manage to surprise you with. The old-world feeling was one of perfect elegance beginning with the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ornate painted ceiling and all the rich wood paneling down to the marble floors.

“Holy shit,” Dean murmured. “This is so much bigger than I pictured it.”

“It’s really something,” Sam agreed. “I bet pictures wouldn’t do it justice.”

They hurried to catch up with Lucho and stepped up past the guest elevators to the landing above the Rendezvous Court.

Sam felt like a movie star coming down the curving staircase, he stood up straighter and moved a little closer to Dean. He could just imagine them arriving at a fancy dinner here back in the day. Dig out their tuxedos and they’d fit right in. The Rendezvous Court had more of a Spanish feel to it than the hallway or the lobby. Lucho waited for them by a fountain in the center of the room. It splashed merrily away as Sam and Dean examined it closely. Dean spent time taking many photos of the details. 

“I see that there are apples on the fountain. Isn’t that what your last name means in Spanish?” Sam asked.

Lucho looked at him with surprise and then smiled widely, pleased. “Yes, indeed, you are right, Sam. This fountain comes from the area my family is originally from in Spain, Manzanares, so apples are used in decoration quite a bit.”

Sam filed that little tidbit of connection in his brain and moved on to what was in front of him. Namely a room filled with all sorts of imported things that could possibly be cursed or en-spelled in some manner. Dean was of course, going around taking pictures and touching every damn thing. Sam tried to hiss at him to cut it out, but Dean ignored him. 

They split up and covered the whole room, coming back together at the fountain. Lucho leaned up against the edge of it, stretching over the flower border to run his hand over the rim of the lower bowl.

“Hey, Lucho, has the fountain always been in here?” Dean asked.

Lucho looked up in surprise, shaking the water from his hand back into the fountain. He shifted from foot to foot and settled down with one thigh pressed against the fountain. “Yes, it was one of the very first decorations installed in this room. It was imported from Spain all in one piece as you see it here.”

“And it’s always had this stuck in the bottom? Down near the drain, there,” Dean said, pointing into the depths of the fountain. “See the metal apple thing?”

“I would say yes,” Lucho said quickly, eyes darting away to the coffee bar in one corner of the room.

Standing across the fountain from them, Sam noticed just how dark and small Lucho was compared to Dean, yet how long his legs were. He was out of proportion somehow. The red hat was also a bit strange, especially given the formal blazer and tie he wore. Lucho’s hair was braided neatly underneath the hat that wasn’t quite a beanie, it was something a little older looking. Lucho stepped away from Dean and started a conversation with the coffee bar server.

“Any idea why Lucho seems so nervous?” Sam asked.

“I don’t really know the guy, but maybe having too many incidents with the hotel guests getting scared has him on edge,” Dean said.

Lucho rejoined them with a tray of sandwiches and coffee. He gestured for them to join him at one of the tables. The brothers fell into one of the soft couches next to each other and sipped at their coffees.

“This place has been having problems,” Lucho said. “Too many times now, my guests have been scared. When I first came here, it was a rare thing, but now we are starting to get a reputation again. I worry it will affect our business.”

“What kinds of things were the guests first reporting versus now?” Sam asked.

“They mentioned things being moved around in their rooms. Chairs being knocked over, windows opened and shut. Jewelry went missing and was sometimes returned in a different place.”

“Are there certain rooms it seemed to happen in more often?” Sam asked.

“I haven’t noticed a pattern. Recently, guests have mentioned feeling something pressing them or holding them down in the bathtub. A few have fallen into the fountain here, or the one in the lobby. Several times lately in the pool and hot tub area we’ve had near-drownings. Luckily no one has died, but it has left people quite shaken.”

“So all of the recent things seem to be related to water somehow,” Dean said, looking at Sam to see if he agreed. “But they weren’t before.”

“Have there been any physical changes to the hotel recently?” Sam asked. “New furniture, things being remodeled, water systems getting worked on, that sort of thing?”

“We have done nothing lately. Our latest remodel ended more than a year ago,” Lucho said. He looked over at the fountain again, a deep worry line creasing his forehead.

“Lucho, we are going to do our best to figure this thing out, okay?” Sam said, trying to look as reassuring as possible.

“What else do you gentlemen need from me to conduct your investigation?” Lucho asked, looking slightly relieved.

“We’re going to wander around and check out all the floors, especially the pool. We might need to get into service areas or the basement,” Dean said.

Lucho handed over a hotel master-key. “This should get you into all the areas you require. If you need me, just dial one of the hotel phones and ask the operator to page me. I have to get back to work now. Thank you so much for coming. You have no idea how glad I am to have some help with this. I’ll leave you to enjoy your lunch.”

They watched him limp away, his braid swinging in time with his quick steps and began eating the sandwiches he’d left them. Sam looked up at the beautiful carved wood ceiling above them and smiled over at Dean.

“This is nicer than our usual gigs, isn’t it?” Dean asked, smiling back.

“Yeah, I’m glad we came, he does need our help.”

“So it’s not just, what did you call it this morning, Hollywood true-crime bullshit?”

“No, it’s not, and I think we can figure it out for him,” Sam said.

Sam was glad Dean saved his I-told-you-so for later and savored the rare experience of having a nice lunch in such a beautiful room with his favorite person next to him. After a lifetime of shitty jobs in crappy places, they deserved a case like this once in a while. Not that it would make up for the shit-show with Lucifer last night of course but he was trying not to dwell on that _thankyouverymuch._

~~`’`’`’`’~~

  
  
After lunch Dean tried to pry the metal apple out of the fountain with his pocket knife but had no luck. He was still wiping his hands dry when he heard the splash Sam made as he almost fell into the water.

Sam held up his multi-purpose tool and shook off the water. “I think this thing had to have been baked in when the fountain was made.”

Some guests had arrived for a late lunch so they had to stop trying anymore destructive acts. They split up and went over the whole room with their EMF detectors. Dean had retrofitted both of them with headphone jacks so they didn’t alert any of the guests who dined nearby. Dean’s EMF went bonkers near the fountain so he motioned Sam to come over and showed him the display. Sam took a reading and his EMF pinged also.

“This is probably what the center of what we’re looking for, right?” Dean asked, trying to remember how many other fountains there were in the hotel.

“Yeah, whatever’s going on here involves water, and the fountain is the thing setting the EMF off,” Sam said.

“We’ll have to check out the other fountain in the lobby, and I think one of the rooftop terraces has one too,” Dean said.

“I have to admit, I’m finally glad you know way too much about this place,” Sam said with a smile.

“I’m saving my I-told-you-so for later,” Dean said, feeling a warm wash of pride come over him at Sam’s praise. Before he said something stupid he hugged Sam briefly.

Over Sam’s shoulder, Dean noticed a beautiful woman in one of the more shadowy corners of the room watching them as they embraced. She seemed a bit out of place because her clothes were strange, almost a costume that suited the Spanish flavor of the room. She wasn’t all made-up like most of the LA women in the place. He thought she might be a historical tour guide. He didn’t have a chance to point her out to Sam, who was already walking up the staircase distracting Dean with the beautiful view of his perfect ass. 

They spent the rest of the day examining the enormous hotel. It took hours because they were trying their best to be thorough, and for once they didn’t split up to do it. Something about the close call with Lucifer last night had him on edge about being too far away from Sam, and his brother sure wasn’t complaining. Dean kept having a flashback to seeing Sam holding open those doors for everyone to escape, and he was guessing Sam kept seeing Dean get flung across the room. Dean would bet both of them were more shaken-up about Lucifer being on a rampage than they were admitting to each other. So sticking together was what they did instead of saying anything about the reasons why. 

Throughout the day Dean was geeking out over all the things he’d always wanted to check out about the place. He almost didn’t notice Sam’s surprise at how into exploring the hotel he was getting. 

“So, have we hit all the big items on your checklist yet?” Sam asked.

Dean was about to protest the idea of him having a checklist, but he realized Sam was right. It was pretty damn long and they’d gone over almost all of the main items like the fountains.

“Yeah, I didn’t realize how late in the day it was. You ready to call it a day?”

Sam nodded and they headed back to the front lobby to pick up their duffel bags and figure out how to get their room key. 

Lucho found them at the front desk as they were getting their key cards. “I am leaving for the night. I do appreciate your efforts today, gentlemen. Please have dinner on me at one of the hotel restaurants. Just charge it to the room.” He lifted his red cap to them in a funny little salute and limped away.

The brothers stared after him, and leaned their heads closer together as they walked through the lobby. Dean took Sam’s hand in his. “He sure is a funny little guy.”

“I like him and his little red hat, I like how much he loves this place, like it’s his or something,” Sam said.

“You ready to head up to our room?” Dean asked, tugging Sam’s hand a bit. Sam nodded and they headed to the bank of guest elevators.

Dean kept holding Sam’s hand, even though they had to hold their duffels too. It felt right, like a thing a couple should do in a fancy place like this. When the elevator door closed, Sam pressed him up against one of the mirrored walls and attacked his lips, kissing them both to the edge of breathlessness. Instead of rising the elevator door reopened and revealed the lobby and a giggling teenage girl. 

“You didn’t let me press our floor button,” Dean muttered and moved over to let her on. The girl got on with them, barely controlling her laughter until she got off on the fourth floor, leaving them alone to kiss until the door opened onto the fourteenth. Dean tugged Sam out of the elevator and led him down the long hallway to their room.

Just as Lucho had promised it was a luxurious suite with a living room area and large bathroom. It was beautifully decorated in rich tones with metal accents. The enormous bed dominated the main room, complete with a tasseled velvet canopy swag over the headboard. It was a bit much. But neither of them minded because they were too busy getting rid of each other’s clothes.

Usually they didn’t fool around when they were on a case, or they tried not to. You never knew when the thing you were hunting would find you in the middle of getting frisky. But there was something about being in this fancy hotel, for free, and no one was in immediate danger of dying. And there was the enormous bed waiting to be messed up.

Sam pushed Dean down onto the bed and pounced on top of him, Dean grabbed him in a judo hold and flipped them so he was on top. He grappled with Sam and ended up pinning his arms above his head. Sam grinned up at him, seeming glad to be momentarily contained. Dean pressed Sam’s wrists into the pillows and then let go. Sam left them because he knew what that meant, and it made him smile wide and knowing once again.

Dean scrambled off the bed and dug in the pockets of his duffel, and came back to the bedside with a tube of lube. He warmed some up in one hand and then pressed two fingers into himself. Sam watched and tried to stay still, but he groaned as he felt himself harden even more at the sight of Dean preparing himself. 

Soon Dean was climbing back on the bed and sinking down onto Sam, encasing him in delicious heat and motion. Both of them sighed at how good it felt to be joined together. Dean gently ran his fingers along Sam’s bruises from the fight with Lucifer pursing his lips like he wanted to say something about them. Sam squirmed and thrust his hips up at the contact and then kept up that rhythm. He lifted his hands off the bed to hold onto Dean’s hips, holding him down so he could push up into him even deeper. Dean’s head was thrown back, his throat deliciously bared. Sam sat up, holding Dean in his lap, impaled and writhing as Sam kissed and bit at Dean’s throat. Dean came between them, hot and hard, clenching so tightly that Sam could barely move.

He tipped Dean onto his back and thrust into him fast and hard, Dean almost limp from the pleasure, but still trying his best to hold onto Sam’s hips. Sam cried out Dean’s name and tipped over the edge. They rolled apart and crawled under the soft covers, quickly falling asleep wrapped up into one endless knot of satisfaction.

They woke up an hour or so later, hot and sticky under the goose-down duvet. 

Sam was the first to get up, Dean enjoyed watching him stretch and walk towards the bathroom. He started to go back to sleep but Sam yanked the bedcovers off in a whoosh.

“Hey, I was sleeping,” Dean complained, trying to pull the pillow over his head.

“We need to go get some dinner before the restaurant closes. And we’re not going out to a nice dinner smelling like sex.”

“Well we’re switching next time,” Dean insisted.

Sam smiled, as he backed Dean into the steamy shower stall. “Not a problem for me, ever.”

They usually fooled around in the shower, but this time, Dean wasn’t thinking about sex. All he could feel was this sense that the water was too heavy. Dean could barely put his arms around Sam’s shoulders with the weight of the water. He felt himself wanting to sink down to the floor, so he could be in it.

“Hey! Dean!” Sam yelled.

Dean shook his head and stepped backwards out of the spray. “What?”

“You were sinking down without saying anything. I thought you were going to try and blow me or something. But you wouldn’t answer me.”

“The water, it felt—really heavy, I wanted to sink down and be in it.”

“That has to be something to do with the case, right?” Sam asked.

“Probably, put it on the list. And only sponge-baths until we figure this out, I guess,” Dean said.

As they toweled off, Dean brought up something he’d been thinking about since they’d woken up.

“That metal apple thing is reminding me of that weird coin stuck in the bottom of the fountain, remember that one, Sammy?”

“Yeah, that one’s kinda hard to forget since I got killed by lightning.”

“You did?” Dean asked, pausing in the middle of pulling on his pants.

“Guess I didn’t tell you. There was a lot going on back then. I remember there was stuff you were hiding from me that I was working on getting out of you,” Sam said, smoothing down the front of his button-up oxford shirt.

“Uh…yeah, there was, wasn’t there, we’ve been doing this for a long time,” Dean said, thinking about the secret he’d tried to keep about their father’s last words. The stupid order to take Sam out if he turned evil that he’d of course ignored.

“Lots of secrets kept over the years. Lots of dying too,” Sam said, reaching out to the front of Dean’s shirt, buttoning it up slowly.

“I’m glad it all reversed so easily. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do this,” Dean said, leaning in to kiss up the skin on Sam’s bared neck.

They held hands all the way down the long hallways, the elevator ride downstairs and through most of their dinner. Smeraldi’s was a beautiful restaurant, filled with more wall frescoes and crystal chandeliers and couples cuddling in the romantic booths. The classic Italian menu had food they both enjoyed. Dean went the meat direction, and Sam was happy to have a chance to have some fresh fish. They both had barely saved enough room for dessert so they split a tiramisu.


	3. Chapter 3

A few hours after they’d fallen asleep for the night, Dean’s phone went off, he answered it in a sleepy mumble, but all he could make out was Lucho telling them to get down to the Rendezvous Room right away. Someone had been hurt again.

They threw on the clothes that were scattered on the floor and hurried downstairs. Lucho was frantic when they arrived, pacing and twisting his hands. “A child…she nearly drowned,” he said in a strained, halting voice.

“We’ll go talk to the parents, okay?” Dean said, patting Lucho on the shoulder. He noticed Lucho seemed to be sweating and the front of his clothes were all wet.

Sam and Dean approached the obviously rattled parents and their little girl as they waited for an ambulance. They weren’t in disguise, so they didn’t have fake badges to flash.

“Hi, we’re with the hotel security team, and we’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’d be okay?” Sam asked.

The mother seemed to clutch the little girl closer to her chest and rearranged the soaked-through tablecloth she’d been wrapped in. “Yes, we want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Dean looked towards the father who was staring at the fountain, his eyes filling with tears. “Sir, can you tell us what happened?” Dean asked, trying to bring the man into the conversation.

“Of course, we were just over there,” he pointed towards the small wine bar in the corner of the enormous room. “We were having a glass of wine, Olivia had fallen asleep at dinner, so we laid her down on this couch where we could still see her.”

“It all happened so fast, the music was playing so we didn't hear her,” the mother said. 

Dean noticed the musicians packing up their instruments near the wine bar. They probably weren’t worth interviewing though as they’d been focused on playing at the time and wouldn’t have heard or seen anything.

All four of the adults were surprised to hear Olivia speak, her small voice, quiet and shaky. “The pretty lady wanted me to come swimming in the fountain.”

Olivia’s mother cradled her closer and kissed her cheek. The girl snuggled into her mother’s arms and seemed to fall asleep.

“We’re checking out tonight, we’re not going to spend another second in this place,” the father said, sounding a bit panicked.

Lucho finally joined them. “The ambulance is here, would you prefer to carry your daughter to them?”

The parents nodded and stood up, walking towards the staircase. Dean walked with them, wanting to ask a few more things. 

On the way up the stairs together, he asked the most obvious question that came to him. “Was there anything strange about the fountain that you noticed?”

The mother stopped on the landing, shifting her daughter from one arm to the other. She pulled back the tablecloth and held up one of Olivia’s wrists so Dean could see the ring of already mottled fingerprint shaped bruises.

“She was drawn to the fountain during their whole stay, like she’d been enchanted. I don’t know what the hell these bruises mean either. There wasn’t anyone there, and we don’t do this to our girl, no one does.”

Dean handed her one of their standard business cards. “Call us if you remember anything else, okay?”

  
The woman nodded and headed towards the flashing red of the ambulance lights shining in the lobby windows with her husband. Dean could see Lucho holding the door open for them and darting around the ambulance helping them get situated.

As Dean walked back down the stairs, he saw Sam talking to a man near the wine bar who was dressed in a white button-down shirt and a black bow-tie. Most likely the bartender who had been working the bar.

Dean bent down and examined the water that had splashed out of the fountain, it was in one area of the tile floor, and soaked into the nearby carpet. Several chairs had been knocked over, there had definitely been some sort of struggle.

“What do you think, Sammy?” Dean asked when Sam crossed the room to join him at the fountain.

“Olivia was very lucky the bartender was a lifeguard, he got her breathing again. I think we’ve got a hell of a lot of work left to do tomorrow.”

“Let’s get back up to our bed then,” Dean said, tucking one arm around Sam’s waist and leading him to the elevator.

They snuggled back into their bed and tried to sleep, but it was useless after the excitement of the near-drowning. 

“You can’t sleep either, huh? Is it the case?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, it’s partly that. That little girl could have died…but it’s—uh,” Sam stopped himself from finishing the sentence.

“I don’t want to say his name either, but the important thing is we lived to fight him another day, right?”

“It’s what he said, Dean, he’s so unhinged, even for him, you know? I’m really worried about what he’s going to do to the world.”

“You though…Sammy, you were like a goddamn superhero holding those doors open. How did you even do that?”

“I don’t know, adrenaline maybe? I just couldn’t let those people…” Sam stopped himself again.

“You did though, you saved them all. Just like the last time when you saved the whole damn world. You’ve beaten him before, and you’ll do it again. We’ll do it again.”

Sam turned to look at Dean then, quietly examining his face instead of saying anything, seeming to consciously work at absorbing his brother’s praise. 

Dean lifted a hand and cupped the side of Sam’s face gently. “You really okay?”

Sam’s answer was to roll into Dean’s arms and kiss him slow and thorough, a long drawn-out exploration, like it was new all over again. It left them both breathless and hard. Sam reached a long arm out and found the tube of lube and handed it to Dean. “Your turn.”

Dean could see what his brother needed was more than just sex. Sometimes the sex they had was only about escaping their reality, but sometimes it was about grounding them into the here and now. Dean intuitively knew that Sam needed to be reminded of how real they were, how much they meant to each other and the world. All of that he could do, he promised himself as he opened his brother up slowly, enjoying the way Sam gave himself over to the pleasure.

Sam was open and ready, legs spread wide and Dean knelt between them, hands running up and down Sam’s thighs, enjoyed feeling them trembling with anticipation. He jacked Sam slowly with the lube left on his hand and Sam hissed with the feeling. His eyes went even darker, beseeching Dean to get on with it. Sam needed it right now, needed Dean to make him forget Lucifer and everything else, make him remember why, remember them. 

Dean lined himself up and entered Sam slowly, all the while holding Sam’s hand, running his thumb over the scar on his palm. Sam gripped his hand tightly, thanking him for the reminder and then wrapped his legs around Dean’s hips, pulling him inside even deeper. Dean propped himself up, hands pressing down onto Sam’s shoulders, his hips driving in deep and hard, the rhythm speeding up until he lost track. 

Sam’s feet were drumming on his ass in time with his thrusts, driving him on even faster, Sam’s hands clenching at his back, nails digging in. Sam’s hips raised up to meet his every thrust and the final straw was his fingers pinching at both of Dean’s nipples. Dean wasn’t sure how loudly he called out Sam’s name, but he didn’t care at that point, coming so hard, so deep inside as Sam clenched and pulled him in a little bit deeper, pulsing around him in waves as he went over the edge. 

They lay together for a long moment, not moving or saying anything, just breathing together, hearts still pounding, completely connected in every way possible. 

Sam’s hands went up to cradle Dean’s face and he looked at him serious and honest, so open, no lies between them any more, “Thank you, you always give me just what I need, Dean.”

Dean dipped down to kiss Sam, instead of saying something stupid like _you’re welcome_. They both groaned as Dean slipped out. Sam rolled over and found a t-shirt to clean them up with. Sam wrapped Dean up in his arms and they fell into a deep sleep for a few more hours.

After a very early breakfast, they headed to the security office to look at the security footage of the attack from the previous night. On the screen they could see Lucho beside the fountain. His eyes flashed strangely, which was of course, never a good sign. He appeared to be attempting to stop Olivia from being pulled into the fountain, but then he went very still, his hands falling to his sides. The water itself was formed into the shape of a woman, and her hands were wrapped around the girl’s wrists as she tugged her under the water. They watched Olivia’s feet kick as she struggled. Water splashed everywhere and Lucho shook himself awake. He reached in to pull her out, both of them tumbling to the tile floor and rolling away from the fountain onto the carpet.

“So he’s not a shifter or something, right?” Dean asked.

“Oh he’s something. Where’d you meet this guy? You never told me.”

“Vince Vicente’s manager, she came up to me outside the concert with him. He claimed he was a Lady-Heart super fan and had been at the show. She thought we’d be able to help him with his issues in the hotel.”

“Guess the question is was he really a fan who happened to be there or was he drawn to Lucifer’s power because he’s somehow in touch with that side of things?” Sam asked.

“After spending time with him yesterday, I don’t get the evil vibe off of him though. He just doesn’t seem like he’d try to drown a kid. And we just saw that he was the one pulling her out of the water.”

“I’ve been thinking about it, and the whole thing with the fountain,” Sam said. “It’s reminding me of this Spanish story about water women. They’re usually a fresh-water source kind of thing, but in LA, maybe a fountain counts? And Lucho told me the thing came from his hometown in Spain.” 

“A Spanish water woman, huh? Maybe Lucho knows there’s one here in the hotel and she’s gone off the deep end?”

Sam rolled his eyes at Dean’s joke and looked something up on his laptop. “Here it is. What I was thinking of is called an Aloja or a Dona d’aigua, they live in wells or cisterns so the fountain here inside the hotel could work I guess. They aren’t immortal but can live thousands of years, tend to avoid humans, but can boil people in the waters they control. There are some legends about stealing children with a hook.” 

“I love when you speak Spanish to me, Sammy.”

“Quit it, Dean. So, mostly these Alojas are just beautiful women who hang around contained water sources for a very long time and increase the wealth and prosperity of the area.”

“I did notice this one woman in the Rendezvous room when we were fooling with the fountain yesterday. I’m pretty sure she was there the whole time, even when we first saw the fountain with Lucho,” Dean said.

“What did she look like?” Sam asked.

“Long curly dark red hair, she was beautiful, but not in an LA kind of way, she stood out because she wasn’t all made-up like the rest of the women in there.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“No, I just noticed her. Honestly, I thought she worked here, seemed like she was dressed up as a historical guide or something. She didn’t seem suspicious though, so I didn’t say anything.”

“Totally your type huh?” Sam said as he scanned the video footage back to the time when they were messing with the fountain. 

Before Dean could protest Sam’s assumption, there she was on the screen, watching their every move intently as they dug around in the fountain. The woman’s long red hair shimmered with an unearthly shine. Her deep blue eyes flashed in that same strange way that Lucho’s had.

“So they’re both something supernatural, we know that by their eyes. Could she be under Lucho’s control somehow, or maybe he’s meant to be her guardian?” Dean asked.

Sam checked his laptop again. “There’s a thing about the Alojas having wands made out of hazel wood that contain their powers, did we see anything like that? It might be something Lucho is keeping from her.” 

“Not that I remember, but there was a lot of stuff in that fountain room. Hey, Lucho’s office is right next door, you want to go poke around in there while I watch the rest of this footage of the last couple days?” Dean asked.

“Why me?” Sam asked, not quite whining.

“Dude, you’re the one that’s better at lock-picking,” Dean said, pointing his finger at Sam. It was obnoxious, but he knew Sam loved it.

“I’ll go check it out,” Sam said, grabbing at Dean’s pointing finger and twisting it slightly.

When Sam came back a few minutes later with a long and pointy piece of dark wood, he looked so triumphant, Dean had to give him a high five. 

“Found this locked in his desk drawer mixed in with the pens and pencils,” Sam said handing him the wand.

Dean examined it carefully, running his fingers over all the marks carved into the surface. On the end of it, he felt something different, a piece of metal embedded in the wood. He held it up to the light and crowed with discovery, “Look, it’s that same apple symbol.”

Sam leaned over Dean’s shoulders and peered at the wand. “Huh, it’s the same design as that metal thing in the bottom of the fountain.” 

“According to the security footage, every single day she shows up near the fountain when breakfast is being served and watches people especially when they get near the water. Her eyes freak out when they actually touch it, almost like they’re touching her.” Dean ran the footage back to the times he’d seen her reaction. 

Sam watched the sequences carefully. “I think you’re right. it seems like she’s trying to hold herself back from touching the people.”

Dean stood up from the security desk and stretched. “Sometimes she’s holding herself back, but then sometimes she loses it and starts grabbing little kids and trying to drown them.”


	4. Chapter 4

“At least they don’t have cucumber water here,” Dean said, as he closed their room’s door behind him with his foot. He was balancing a tray with a late lunch he’d brought back for Sam.

Sam turned away from the research on his laptop and checked his notebook where he’d been jotting down notes. “Okay, so I’ve figured out what Lucho probably is. He’s something called a Trasgu, a Spanish kind of goblin. Usually they’re good guys that limp on their right leg and they always wear red somewhere, most often a hat. They tend to be difficult to get rid because they get attached to objects.”

“An object, like the fountain I guess? How do we get rid of him, blow up the fountain?”

“No, Dean, we are not blowing anything in this place up. According to the lore, the only way to get rid of a Trasgu is to assign him an impossible task like bringing a basket of water from the sea to fill up the fountain. Then his pride is hurt and he goes away.”

“Well, do we really want to get rid of him if he’s basically a good guy?” Dean asked.

“Maybe he needs to leave the Aloja alone so she can go back to being just a beneficent water goddess again.”

“We really sure he’s the one that’s the bad guy here? Maybe she’s the one that’s gone wrong,” Dean said. 

“What else could it be besides him? He had her wand locked up in his desk drawer. His name is Manzana which means apple, and there’s a metal apple stuck in the wand and the fountain. That looks like she’s under his control to me,” Sam said, sounding like he’d completely convinced himself.

“I don’t know. Seems like there’s always a twist to these things. I’d rather it was some easy thing just blow them up, fountain, wand, metal apple things, kaboom, done. But there’s something else here we’re not getting. Both of us think Lucho is basically a good guy, right?” Dean asked, trying to draw Sam out of his conclusion.

“I want to think he’s a good guy, and not just because he comped us a suite and bought us dinner and all. He genuinely seems to care about this place. I mean, think about how he was last night when the little girl almost died. He was distraught and not in an ‘oh no we’re gonna get sued’ kinda way,” Sam said.

“So we’ve got to get the real story from him somehow, or try to talk to the mysterious red-haired woman when she appears tomorrow morning,” Dean said, handing Sam one of the sandwiches from the tray. 

Sam munched for a while, still reading. He washed down the sandwich with one of the sodas on the tray and closed his laptop with a final sounding thunk. “We need to take precautions with him, just in case we’re not reading him right.”

“We have anything that’ll work to hold a Trasgu long enough to ask him a few questions?”

“No, but I might have an idea,” Sam said, re-opening his laptop and quickly typing. “This is probably worth a try,” he said, turning the screen towards Dean on the table. 

Dean’s eyebrows raised higher and higher as he read but then he nodded and smiled. “I’ve got a rope that’ll do what you’re looking for in the weapons bag. I’ll page Lucho and ask him to meet us down in his office when you’re done eating.”

Sam rolled his eyes at Dean’s mother-hen act, but started on another half of a second sandwich. He slid the plate with the remaining half across the table to Dean and met his eyes with a smile. Dean grinned at being taken care of also and polished it off in a few enthusiastic bites. It had taken some getting used to, letting Sam coddle him, but he liked it, more than Sam probably realized. Dean made the phone call and they rode downstairs in the elevator, bumping shoulders and hips the whole way, both excited to see if this actually would work.

Lucho opened the door to his office and backed up quickly as they swarmed through. Sam snatched the red hat off his head with his long reach as Dean muscled him down into his desk chair. He tied Lucho with a rope that had silver strands woven through it before he had a chance to protest.

“First you steal from me? Now this?” Lucho yelled, going red in the face with anger.

“Calm down, Lucho, we just need to get a few things straight here, then we can untie you, okay?” Sam asked, patting him on the shoulder.

Lucho made a low growling sound in the back of his throat. Sam withdrew his hand quickly.

“So, you’re one of these Trasgu guys, huh? Aren’t you supposed to be the good kind of goblin?” Dean asked, his hands pulling tight on the rope that secured Lucho to the desk chair.

“Not good, not bad, but yes I am a Trasgu. I am Her companion,” Lucho inclined his head towards the closed door on the other side of which the fountain plashed merrily away.

“But why are both of you here? Is it something to do with the fountain?” Sam asked, settling down on top of the desk, still looming over their captive.

“We were…together, always together back in Spain, in the old times. I can’t remember how long ago. And then they came to take Her away from me, from our home. They wanted Her fountain for this place,” Lucho said, tears beginning to form in the corners of his dark blue eyes.

“Lucho, hey, it’s okay, just tell us the whole thing,” Sam said, leaning forward to pat him on the shoulder. Dean glanced at Sam and frowned in warning, crossing his own arms over his chest. 

“She didn’t want to be alone here in a new place. And I didn’t want to be alone in España, so I came with Her. She didn’t ask me to, but She was glad. We have been happy here together, but recently She started to go a little _loco_ because of the new water purification system the city put in. The city water became too pure for Her. It’s too unconnected from the waters of the world, too pure, not wild and true like real water should be. I had to try to contain Her, otherwise she would have hurt too many people. I hated to do it, but my sigil was the only thing strong enough to hold Her. But it has been too long for me here in this place. Now my power is waning too.”

“Let me guess, not enough people believe in you?” Dean asked, gruff tone in his voice and his arms still crossed.

“You know about this thing?” Lucho asked, big eyes looking up at Dean.

“Yeah, we’ve heard the same story from gods and monsters we’ve killed over the years. You old ones have a tough time of it here in the US.”

“I never meant for any human to be injured, certainly not a child. Last night was the worst She has ever been. I mean, since the beginning before the fountain was operational.”

“So that was back when all the murders happened, huh? That was why the haunted hotel thing really started?” Dean asked.

“Yes, all those people…ayiyi, it was so terrible. I think it took too long, the journey here. It was tolerable for Her while She was on the ship; at least She was in the water, in the sea. But then we were here waiting for so long. The plans for this room were being finalized and they were delayed for redesign many times. Her fountain was stored in a shipping crate and the dryness of it drove Her mad. She escaped into the hotel’s water system and it all went wrong after that.”

“Back then, one person died in the hotel pool, several in bathtubs in the rooms, but all of them were in contact with water somehow. Now I get it,” Dean said, satisfied that the old mystery was finally solved.

“I’m still not sure how she came back to Herself, but She did,” Lucho finished with a sad smile on his face directed at the fountain.

“It probably had something to do with you, Lucho. She must have loved you very much,” Sam said, patting his hand on Lucho’s shoulder again. This time Dean didn’t frown, he uncrossed his arms and stepped to Sam’s side, slipping an arm around his waist.

“She probably still does,” Dean said, he squeezed his arm tight around Sam for a moment then let go. He pulled up a chair in front of Lucho and sat, leaning forward. “Lucho, you gotta tell us how to help you. We need to get you both out of here somehow.”

“You would help?” Lucho asked, looking up into their faces, his eyes brimming with fresh tears.

“It’s what we do, when we can. We’ve killed a lot of things like you, but you know, over the years, Sam and I have learned to color in the shades of grey, right, Sammy?” Dean looked up at Sam and met his eyes.

Sam nodded and smiled. “Lucho, can She survive outside of the fountain?”

“Yes, if I can convince Her, She will transform into a vessel which I can fill with water. If I place Her wand inside I should be able to take Her anywhere.”

“Why didn’t you do that before, when you first came here?” Dean asked.

“We hadn’t moved in so long, we’d forgotten what it was like for Her to be without water. Once She was crated up on the ship, I couldn’t get to Her. And here in the hotel, my powers were too weak at first to help.”

“You think it will work now though, since she’s so far gone?” Sam asked.

“I do, if I can get through to Her. I know I must try,” Lucho said, he sat up straighter in the chair pulling at the ropes.

“Can you do it right now?” Dean asked.

“If you give me back Her wand, I will try. As soon as She is contained. You…uh…you…must—I cannot,” Lucho said with a pained gasp.

“You can’t say it, can you? Lucky for you, we already know. We’ll assign you an impossible task, otherwise you’ll find it too hard to ever leave this place,” Sam said.

Lucho was stone-faced, not answering. 

“We will, Lucho, we’ll do it, even though you can’t ask us or tell us to. But I gotta try and find out about something that’s been bugging me. Was it you all these years, moving stuff around in guest’s rooms and scaring people?” Dean asked.

“Yes, that was me, it was part of how I regained some of my powers. There never were any ghosts here.”

“And were you really a Lady Heart fan?” Sam asked.

“Yes, I always will be. Rock on forever, Vince Vicente wherever you are,” Lucho said sadly. “Do you know what happened to him that night?”

“Normally we wouldn’t tell a civvie, but you aren’t really one, are you. He was possessed, by Lucifer a little while ago. His body got used up holding him and he fell apart,” Dean said.

“ _The_ Lucifer?” Lucho asked, his eyes going wide with astonishment.

Both Sam and Dean nodded and didn’t look at each other.

“I have even more confidence in you than before,” Lucho said, looking at them both with awe. “To have battled the Devil himself and won is no small thing.”

“It’s not the first time, and unfortunately it’s not gonna be the last. This gig in the hotel was kind of a vacation for us,” Dean admitted.

Lucho grinned at them, showing his very pointy, sharp teeth. “I’m glad to have been able to give you one in return for you helping me.”

“We want to try this as soon as possible, so no one else gets hurt. We figured out that She comes out every morning. Do we need to wait until then?” Sam asked.

“No, that is when She is at Her strongest, when She is able to take human form. The hours after twilight would be best.”

“Won’t there be a lot of hotel guests around?” Dean asked.

“I will inform the staff to close the entrances to the Rendezvous Room, and ask the quartet to take the night off. Would you untie me so I can go attend to that?”

Dean rolled the chair closer to the desk and picked up the phone receiver holding it to Lucho’s ear. “What’s the number?”

“You do not trust me?” Lucho asked.

“Nope, sorry, but don’t take it personally or anything. Blame it on Lucifer if you want,” Dean said.

Lucho gave Dean the number and had a conversation with his staff about closing down that part of the hotel and moving the evening food service to the lobby. Sam sat in the chair across the desk watching his brother handle the phone for Lucho, seeming lost in thought.

“You okay, Sam?” 

Sam looked up at Dean’s voice and blinked slowly like he was coming out of a trance. “Sorry…uh, just thinking too much.”

“You just hang here for a sec, Lucho, I gotta go have a chat with this one,” Dean said, hauling Sam up to standing and bustling him out the door, shutting it behind them. He propped Sam up against the wall and held onto his shoulders. “I’m gonna ask again, you okay, Sammy?”

Sam shook his head sending his hair flying and he tried his best to smile for Dean. “No, I’m not,” he finally said in a subdued voice.

Dean’s hands moved up to curl protectively around Sam’s neck, one of them buried in his hair, Sam melted down into the hug, and Dean held him there. He could feel the tension thrumming through his brother’s body. It felt like Sam was going to fly apart into a million pieces. “Is it Luc—?” 

“Don’t…please, can we not say his name for a few days? It’s like it brings him closer or something.”

“Yeah, Sammy, yeah of course,” Dean said into the clammy skin of Sam’s neck, his lips lingering to leave kisses that he hoped would drive thoughts of Lucifer away from Sam’s mind.

Sam stood up straight and shrugged out of Dean’s arms. He rolled his shoulders and pulled himself back together right before Dean’s eyes. His little brother had no idea how amazing he was for just being able to carry on another day after everything that’d gotten thrown at them lately. Dean held onto Sam’s hand and rubbed his thumb over that horrible scar, trying to get it across to him.

“I’m gonna go back up to the room and get some stuff for a protective circle that I was researching. I think it might help keep our water woman contained if Lucho can’t handle it.”

“I’ll hang here with him, try and keep him company or whatever,” Dean said, hand lingering on Sam’s. He watched as Sam stepped over to the bank of elevators until he disappeared into one of them. 

Dean leaned against the wall for a moment to recover from the heaviness of that moment between them. He never knew exactly what was going through Sam’s mind at a particular moment, but he trusted Sam’s heart. It was something he’d never said out loud, but he’d always felt like his moral compass was tied to wherever Sam’s heart led them. Sam was the one who always guided them through the shades of grey. That was why Dean was certain they were doing the right thing here, working with Lucho instead of offing the guy.

Sam wasn’t gone too long, but Dean still got a chance to talk to Lucho about the early days of the hotel. He filled in a lot of blanks of the ghost story and unsolved murders that Dean had been so interested in for so long. He’d seen so many Hollywood stars come and go that Dean could have talked to him for hours. It seemed to keep Lucho calm too, being able to take his mind off of being restrained.

They waited until the hotel guests had been blocked off from entering the room before they exited Lucho’s office. Dean pushed him, still tied to his rolling office chair, bumping over the tiles and carpets until he was next to the fountain. Sam crawled around on the tile floor, marking a containment circle all the way around the fountain and Lucho’s chair. The design looked similar to a devil’s trap around the border but had an empty space in the middle.

Dean stood over Sam and made a tssking sound. “Pretty sure you missed a spot there in the middle.”

“Nope,” Sam said, continuing to draw the design. “This is something I just read about in the Spanish lore this morning, supposedly it can contain all sorts of supernatural beings and levels of power. It isn’t a symbol we’ve tested out before but the book I found it in had several other powerful sigils that I recognized. I thought it was at least worth a shot to try it.”

“What mess is this you are making?” Lucho asked.

“It’s something that might help when your Lady appears,” Sam said, dusting his hands off as he stood back up. “It’s just temporary glue-stick, powdered red pepper, clay and chalk. I think it will clean up okay if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise at hearing Sam’s recipe because it was something they’d never used. Sam read some words that sounded vaguely Latin off a crumpled paper he’d pulled from his pocket. When he finished he lit the paper on fire with his lighter and as it flamed up he threw it onto the floor at the base of the fountain. The design he’d marked flamed a dark red, sparkled briefly almost too bright to look at, and then faded out to a steady glow.

“Ready?” Dean asked.

Sam nodded and bent down in front of Lucho. “We need a vow from you, that you will do all you can to persuade your Lady to transform, and that you’ll both leave the hotel.”

“I vow that I will do all in my power to save my Lady and that we will depart. I remind you that you will have to trick me to do that so I won’t be able to return.”

“Got it covered, dude, no worries,” Dean said.

“We accept your vow, Lucho,” Sam said, trying to make it official as he untied the silvery rope from Lucho’s arms. He helped the small man stand up straight, placed the red hat back onto his head and handed him the wand they’d taken from his office. Dean carefully removed the chair from the circle trying to not disturb any part of the design that glowed and pulsed red on the floor.

“ _Mi mujer de las aguas, Dona d’aigua, por favor aparezca ante mi,_ ” Lucho said in a clear voice, his small arms extended wide over the water of the fountain’s surface. He stirred the tip of the wand through the water in a complicated pattern that neither of them could follow.

“What’s he saying?” Dean leaned over to whisper in Sam’s ear.

Sam turned his head so his lips brushed against Dean’s ear. “He called her mother of the waters and please appear before me.”

Nothing happened for a long moment and Dean was about to ask Lucho to try asking again when the water’s surface began to move in small circles and then larger pulsing waves. It splashed against the edges of the fountain and then She appeared, shimmering in her watery form before them. Lucho spoke to her urgently in a Spanish-sounding dialect that rushed past their ears too quickly to translate. 

Lucho abruptly jumped up from his crouch next to the fountain raising the wand high above his head as all the water the Aloja was formed from along with the rest of the water flew up into the air in a solid column constrained by the protective circle. Her form disappeared into the water as it raised up and up to the very top of the forty foot ceiling, hovering and pressing against the bounds of the circle. In a sudden downward rush, it released its form and fell, drenching all three of them. 

Sam and Dean struggled to breathe. There seemed to be so much water, it was like it had replaced all the air in the room.

Sam was wiping his wet hair out of his eyes once the water had receded from his face and saw Dean being sucked into the water vessel that was forming along with the Aloja.

  
“Dean, you’re too close!” Sam yelled, diving forward to tackle Dean to the floor, rolling away from the fountain with Dean wrapped in his arms.

“I’m sorry, I thought Lucho was trying to get away when he jumped up,” Dean said into the front of Sam’s soaked shirt.

They sat up just in time to see the final form of the vessel hardening into the shape of an enormous apple pierced with the Aloja’s wand. It sat in Lucho’s outstretched palms, glowing with the energy of the water it had been formed from and the being it contained. Lucho’s face was serene and calm.

Dean held a woven basket out to Lucho who carefully placed the vessel inside .He took the basket from Dean and looked up at him. Sam wrapped an arm around Dean’s waist, pressing their hips together.

“This is my wastebasket from my office isn’t it?” Lucho asked with a grin, cradling the basket to his chest with both arms.

Sam nodded and stifled a laugh.

“I knew it was worth it. I’m glad I took the risk of asking you to help us. I am sorry that I couldn’t just tell you. It is a Trasgu thing, we can’t be helpful about things like that.”

“Well, you are a goblin, right?” Sam asked.

“Lucho, I challenge you to bring back the water from the sea in this basket,” Dean said.

Without a word, Lucho headed out the door and left the hotel, his red cap still dripping water.

The brothers informed the front desk staff that Lucho was taking a leave of absence from work for an invented family emergency, and oh by the way there was a bit of water spilled in the Rendezvous Room. It had gotten quite late by the time they were done, so they headed back up to their suite, ordered some room service hamburgers and spent the rest of the night trying to feel like they were actually dry and that there was actually enough air to breathe. They both avoided the bathroom because the idea of using any of the water in this place was still freaky even though they knew the Aloja was gone. 

Checking out in the morning was interesting because Lucho had left a package for them at the desk. They waited to open it until the first rest stop because they both wanted to escape from LA as fast as possible. They brought it out to a picnic table under one of the small desert trees along with some lunch they’d picked up at the gas station’s deli. It was something heavy, wrapped in old brown paper that looked well-traveled, tied up with a black hairy cord. 

“I wonder when he had time to leave this for us? He left in such a hurry,” Dean asked.

“Maybe he has one of those debt-paying quirks some of the fairies have? He was probably going to pay us whether we helped him or not,” Sam said.

Once Sam had the thing unwrapped and opened they both sat there in silent wonder. It was a small wooden treasure chest, carved with apples and Spanish words filled with all the jewelry Lucho had filched over the years from the hotel. There were all sorts of jewels, gold chains, and heavy gold watches. A treasure trove any dragon would adore. And now they got to decide what to do with it. 

The drive back home to the bunker was filled with arguments about finder’s fees, pawn shops, metal melting temperature points, and whether there were jewelry consignment shops that wouldn’t ask for original purchase receipts. Neither of them had a thought left for Lucifer or the mess that awaited them, and that was more precious than all the gold in that chest. 

~The End~


End file.
